Anyone who has done any painting at all will acknowledge the problem of rinsing the paint from either brushes or rollers. Professional painters who must change colors throughout the day or week have an even tougher problem. It is often very difficult to rinse out all the paint from a roller or brush. When doing so it seems like there is an unlimited quantity of paint embedded deep within the nap of the roller or the bristles of the brush, as it seems to continuously flush out with the water even after a minute or two of hard flushing.
This relative ineffectiveness of the typical flushing technique, which involves holding the brush or roller under a faucet, is due in large part to the lack of anything that would force the water deep into the nap of the roller or into the bristles of the brush. The result is that it is often easier, especially for a professional painter, to throw away a roller and use a different one for a different color, rather than trying to clean the original roller. Even at a couple of dollars per unit, the cost mounts up, and adds additional waste to the already overburdened waste facilities of our consumer society.
There have been automatic roller cleaners produced and marketed. Typically, these are devices that provide a constant flow of water directed at the nap of the roller. In some cases, these devices are designed for unattended operation, such as the devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,373 and 2,831,488. Other devices, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,285,178 are designed to be used with an operator in attendance. These devices are typically messy to use, and in the case of those devices designed for unattended operation, are slow.
There is a need for an efficient and effective paint brush and roller cleaner, which can be used with the existing water hookups almost all residential and commercial establishments.